Photos of the Week

This week’s gallery includes New Year's rituals in Brazil, myriad celebrations and demonstrations in India, and more.

An Indian Sikh warrior blows fire as he displays traditional martial art skills during a religious procession ahead of the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh in Jammu, India, on Jan. 3, 2019. The birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru, is marked on Jan. 5. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

(RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s gallery includes New Year’s rituals in Brazil, myriad celebrations and demonstrations in India, and more.

A Sikh warrior blows fire, a traditional skill of martial art, during a procession celebrating the birthday of Guru Gobind Singh in Jammu, India, on Jan. 3, 2019. The birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru, is marked on Jan. 5. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)


Snow covers the small Greek Orthodox church of Agia Ekaterini in Myrodafni village, near Ioannina city in northwestern Greece, on Jan. 3, 2019. As a cold front hit mountain regions of Greece, temperatures dropped below zero amid heavy snowfall. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Buddhist devotees pray as they take turns lying in coffins during a ceremony at the Wat Takien temple in suburban Bangkok, Thailand, on Dec. 31, 2018. Worshippers believe that the ceremony helps rid them of bad luck as they are ritually born again for a fresh start in the new year. (AP Photo/Sakchai lalit)

Women take a pledge to fight gender discrimination as they form part of a hundreds of miles long “women’s wall” in Thiruvananthapuram, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, on Jan. 1, 2019. An estimated 5 million women participated in making the wall, which is believed to be the largest ever demonstration for gender equality. The women were demanding an end to violence against women trying to enter Kerala’s Sabarimala temple. A recent ruling from India’s top court allowed the entrance of women of menstruating age at the Sabarimala temple, one of the world’s largest Hindu pilgrimage sites, causing mass demonstrations against the ruling. (AP Photo/R.S. Iyer)

A Naga Sadhu, or a naked Hindu holy man, dances during a procession towards the Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganges and Yamuna, ahead of the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India, on Jan. 2, 2019. Kumbh Mela is a 45-day festival beginning later this month in which millions of Hindu devotees bathe in the holy waters to cleanse them of their sins. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Women wade into the ocean with a boat filled with offerings for Yemanja, goddess of the sea, during traditional New Year’s celebrations on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2018. As the year winds down, Brazilian worshippers of Yemanja celebrate the deity by offering flowers and launching large and small boats into the ocean in exchange for blessings in the coming year. The belief in the goddess comes from the African Yoruban religion brought to America by West African slaves. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

South Korean Buddhists pray for reunification during a service to celebrate the New Year at Imjingak, near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, on Jan. 1, 2019.  (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A woman holds a candle during prayers at the scene of a collapsed apartment building in Magnitogorsk, a city of 400,000 people, about 870 miles southeast of Moscow, Russia, on Jan. 2, 2019. The building’s pre-dawn collapse on Monday (Jan. 2) came after an explosion that was believed to have been caused by a gas leak. (AP Photo/Maxim Shmakov)


People take selfies with the statue of Yemanja, goddess of the sea, during traditional New Year’s celebrations on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Dec. 29, 2018. As the year winds down, Brazilian worshippers of Yemanja celebrate the deity by offering flowers and launching large and small boats into the ocean in exchange for blessings in the coming year. The belief in the goddess comes from the African Yoruban religion brought to America by West African slaves. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Visitors offer prayers and offerings at Kanda Myojin shrine in Tokyo on the first business day of the year in Tokyo, Japan, on Jan. 4, 2019. The popular Shinto shrine dates back almost 1300 years to when it was first built in 730 C.E. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

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